Various States that are cutting back summer vacations for kids...

[DisneyDellsDude]

Being a highschool student in Wisconsin right now, I like how we are set up. It's really nice break to have a very long summer. (We get off during the end of the second week of June and don't start back again until after Labor Day).
We get at least a week off for Christmas and Spring Break. We also get almost a full week off for Thanksgiving. (We usually have school that week on Monday, which does not make much sense...). We also get some nice one to two days added on to a weekend every once and a while. And don't forget snow days.

Yay for not starting till after Labor Day.:sohappy:

 

[wdwmomof3]

With three at home for the summer, I am ready for it to start! :ROFLOL:Just kidding! But really, here in Alabama our children got out of school at the end of May and start back August 6th. I thought that it was a short summer but we also get a Fall break, two weeks for Christmas and a Spring break. I would hate to see our Fall break taken away. This is something that we didn't have when I was in school and I think that it is so nice to have a break every now and then.

I had thought about taking advantage of the free dining in Aug/Sept but after talking with the administrator at the high school there is no way I could pull my freshman out. She said that they cram in everything so much that missing one day is like missing three. My jaw fell open. That is moving fast, so if the summer was any longer I can't think of how hard it would be for them.

Please keep our fall & spring breaks!

 

[bigorangeandy]

In Gwinnett County Georgia the school year ends on the Wednesday before Memorial Day (May 23 this year). The kids start school on August 13 (this year) this gives them almost 12 weeks off for the summer. We will go about 88 days then take two weeks for Christmas, then about 92 days and get out May 21, 2008. The kids get six or seven days off in the fall before two weeks at Christmas, then 8 or 9 in the spring. We always seem to have our spring break the first full week of April. Most of the school systems in the Atlanta area are on a calendar close to this (different spring breaks), some may start a week earlier or so, but they will go a few days later at the end of school.

 

[Pongo]

That's ironic, because in my little section of Florida, the school board actually moved the school start dates LATER than they have been since I've been going to to school. We used to start the secondish Tuesday in August. This year they're starting late August.

 

[bjlc57]

my best friend teaches in Alabama. and he loves the extra break to do what HE wants to do. BUT.. and here is the BUT, his kids now, are DRAGGING AT THE END of the year. to the point where they are falling down on their tests.. WHY? One reason, making the school year longer, by having the fall and spring extra breaks.

and I noticed that some of you are going "extra days".. 180 instead of 176.


and NONE of you especially from some of the southern states even came close to acknowledging the TEST SCORE difference between the northern states which DON"t have the extra breaks and the states that do.

Test scores tell the story. what else can you measure it by?

 

[Champion]

there is one and one reason ONLY why schools start earlier in the SOUTH and other parts of the country.. FOOTBALL.

And thats because the state governments are too stupid to regulate it.

The high school that I attended won 4 national championships back in the 50s and 60s. In order to combat the school from bringing the kids in earlier, the state government created a rule that the coaches couldn't instruct the kids until a certain date (used to be the third Sunday in August, not sure if its the same now)

That way, the kids can still run practices on their own (and captain's practices are mandatory for anyone looking to seriously make the team) but there is no influence to start the school year earlier.

 

[bjlc57]

and as for teachers getting "time off" ask any teacher you know the last time that they worked a 40 hour work week during the school year. most work between 60 and 80 hours per week during the school year.

take that extra time and then transpose it to the "off time" during the summer and you find that it works that teachers have already worked their summer hours. and time after that.

 

[MickeyJman06]

I am really shocked by the number of States that are cutting back summer vacations for kids.. I hear that some places are going back to school as early as two weeks to three weeks from now. Thats INSANE.

already in Milwaukee they go an extra 10 school days "to keep kids off the streets." 190 days as opposed to 179 or as little as 176 in some smaller farm communities.


But starting school on August 10th or earlier JUST TO PLAY FOOTBALL, No thats wrong. and it hurts the tourism industry. High school is not about playing football, its about getting an education.

Both Wisconsin and Minnesota have passed laws saying that school cannot begin before Labor day.

as a teacher, I know just how much kids need a break and how much teachers need a mental break to make the classroom go.

school schedules revolving around sports is putting the cart before the horse.

its bad for business and its bad for kids..

 

[bjlc57]

finally let me say that as a person who has worked on a school schedule his whole life, in many different forms,

I know one true fact..


Kids need TIME, time to recover. they get burned out and teachers do as well.


they need the 12 plus weeks to stay away from each other so that the muscle that they work so hard, has a chance to heal, so that it can be worked and grow again next year.


every athlete needs to rest their muscles. this just happens to be the muscle between their ears.

and I can tell you from personal experience, take the rest away, especially the long term rest, and you lose in the LONG RUN.

 

[pinkrose]

my best friend teaches in Alabama. and he loves the extra break to do what HE wants to do. BUT.. and here is the BUT, his kids now, are DRAGGING AT THE END of the year. to the point where they are falling down on their tests.. WHY? One reason, making the school year longer, by having the fall and spring extra breaks.

and I noticed that some of you are going "extra days".. 180 instead of 176.


and NONE of you especially from some of the southern states even came close to acknowledging the TEST SCORE difference between the northern states which DON"t have the extra breaks and the states that do.

Test scores tell the story. what else can you measure it by?

My best friend is a teacher here as well. In our county, we don't get a Fall break. We got one last year for the first time. This year is was taken away (just an extra long weekend).

The didn't give us Spring Break until mid April last year. That was hard doing that long stretch from Jan. until then. My kids were so burned out that they didn't want to do any school work once home (of course, they did it). After our break, we only went a few weeks until we were out for the summer. Didn't make any sense to me. :shrug:

 

[utrythinkinof1]

Here outside of Washington DC (Montgomery County for locals) we have 180 schools days, I think. School used to start before Labor Day, but in recent years has been pushed backed to the last week of August. School ends mid-June and winter and spring breaks are about 10-11 days and we get a few Jewish holidays. Since everyone is paranoid about snow here, usually a few inches closes schools. Yay!

 

[GenerationX]

There seems to be a pretty strong correlation between the number of school days and student achievement. The U.S. is in the middle of the pack among industrialized nations in student achievement and would likely move up a few notches if a few more weeks were added to the school year.

Kids need breaks that are long enough to unwind, but short enough that they don't forget everything they just learned. Current U.S. summer breaks lean toward the latter.

 

[tooltime]

i just heard this too, today


what am i to do...my wife always was always on top of these things

i will just have to become more responsible :brick:

 

[Dwarful]

I think Jonathan Kozol's book "Savage Inequalities" had several key factors that show why there are such inequalities in our school systems. I think it goes far beyond when and how long vacation time is. They have tried 'year round' school in our area ( I live in southern Illinois) and it failed BIG TIME. The districts that have the children that need the most help, get the least funding and honestly, no matter what the school calendar says, the students who seem to need to be in school the most, are the ones who miss the most. In Illinois and Missouri, Kindergarten, for example is completely optional. I cannot imagine sending a 6/7 yr old child into the first grade w/no prior classroom experience, that is just setting that child up for failure.
Ok, off my soap box!

 

[JDM]

finally let me say that as a person who has worked on a school schedule his whole life, in many different forms,

I know one true fact..

Kids need TIME, time to recover. they get burned out and teachers do as well.

they need the 12 plus weeks to stay away from each other so that the muscle that they work so hard, has a chance to heal, so that it can be worked and grow again next year.

every athlete needs to rest their muscles. this just happens to be the muscle between their ears.

and I can tell you from personal experience, take the rest away, especially the long term rest, and you lose in the LONG RUN.

This is an awesome argument! Thanks!
I'm going to use this when I meet with my boss to get him to give me summer's off with pay, so I don't burn out and it's better for our long term success.
I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[mnfootballmommy]

my best friend teaches in Alabama. and he loves the extra break to do what HE wants to do. BUT.. and here is the BUT, his kids now, are DRAGGING AT THE END of the year. to the point where they are falling down on their tests.. WHY? One reason, making the school year longer, by having the fall and spring extra breaks.

and I noticed that some of you are going "extra days".. 180 instead of 176.


and NONE of you especially from some of the southern states even came close to acknowledging the TEST SCORE difference between the northern states which DON"t have the extra breaks and the states that do.

Test scores tell the story. what else can you measure it by?

Test scores do not tell the entire story. School year length (breaks or no breaks) is not the primary problem. Funding, parental participation, language barriers, politics, etc., ALL play into these 'test' scores. As a poster mentioned previously, some schools "teach the test" in order to get those higher scores, but do not teach the other essentials to understand the concepts behind them. Many schools have outdated school books, no computers, dilapidated buildings and, yes, unqualified staff. (I have never taught in a state where there were teacher shortages, however.) The typical school day is interrupted at least one to two times per week for fire drills, guest speakers, etc. That may not seem like that big of a deal, but how does your work productivity do when you are interrupted at your job?

There is no win-win here. Our schools need help, not the finger pointing that has become standard.

 

[pinkrose]

This is an awesome argument! Thanks!
I'm going to use this when I meet with my boss to get him to give me summer's off with pay, so I don't burn out and it's better for our long term success.
I'll let you know how it goes.

The teachers here in Alabama only get paid for the school year, yet have the option of stretching it out over the 12 months. Most of them choose to stretch out their pay over the 12 months so that they will have a check in the summer.

 

[mnfootballmommy]

Also, when I taught in AL, most of the teachers worked a second job. They were at the school from 7 am to 5 pm, had dinner with their families then worked (usually retail) from 7 pm to 10 pm or later...

 

[The Mom]

I'm not sure that having a longer school year for EVERY student is the solution. Private schools go the same amount of time, but, as a whole, their students test higher. They, generally, spend less money per student, and their teachers tend to be paid less.

BUT, the average household is either wealthier, or education is valued more highly so that other things are sacrificed to pay tuition, or the child is forced to work to full potential to keep a scholarship. (But all of the schools I'm familiar with still insist that the family pay on a sliding scale.)

This jibes with test scores that show that wealthier students(as a group), regardless of public vs private schools, do better on standardized testing, and retain more knowledge when tested AFTER the summer break than poorer students.

So the problem becomes one of finding a way to provide all students with an academically friendly home environment, which may be an impossible task. It's hard for a family in some circumstances to concentrate on school when they are using all of their financial and emotional resources to just survive.

Keeping all students in school longer may not be the answer, as it might just sustain the status quo by raising the bar. Not a bad thing in and of itself, as it might make our best and brightest more competitive in a global market (but not necessarily more creative, which should not be overlooked, and is not easily measured by standardized testing) but might also cause an even larger gap between the students who are excelling and those who are falling behind.

 

[DisneyDellsDude]

there is one and one reason ONLY why schools start earlier in the SOUTH and other parts of the country.. FOOTBALL.

Why would you have to start school earlier for that? I'm not in football, but some of my friends are. They start their practices at the beginning of August with the coaches, but school still doesn't start for us until after Labor Day.

And I just though I would throw this in... I had a really strange dream last night. (probably from reading all the threads in here). But we were driving past a football field on the 4th of July, and a football practice was going on and I thought to myself, "Glad I'm not in football"! lol. This was also mixed in with other stuff. I was mad that our Christmas parade was not Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade... I won't continue.:lol: